Fonty wrote: My vote would go to such a party, but not if my vote is going to be stolen by another party that I wouldn't trust to govern my street let alone the country.

Me cynical?

Your vote can go to what ever party you want. If, say, you want to vote Green but not let your preference go to another party, just vote '1' in the Green spot and leave the rest blank. AEC take that as your vote but don't allow you a preference vote after that. Does that make sense?

IMO ... the population needs to be educated on how to vote properly, not just vote the way a particular party wants you to vote so that your prefence are redirected elsewhere. It's slowly happening (educating of voters) but only thanks to minor parties.

Hmm has that changed? I did Year 12 politics back in 1990 and don't remember that being the case then. I would certainly consider voting for the greens if I didn't have to allocate a preference. Both for their environmental policy and their strong anti-war stance.

Scolers wrote:IMO ... the population needs to be educated on how to vote properly, not just vote the way a particular party wants you to vote so that your prefence are redirected elsewhere. It's slowly happening (educating of voters) but only thanks to minor parties.

Scol.

Does that mean we wont need How to Vote Cards? With all the green policies that all the parties have, we still have a forest of leaflets gone to waste at the end of the day. I refuse to take them and make a big point about it to party drones who hand them out, though to the embarrassment of my wife.

Never argue with a fool! They drag you down to their level, and beat you with experience!

Fonty wrote:Depends on radical in what way. I think we are doing nasty things to our environment so a bit of radical response, extreme backpedalling and putting a lot of resources into creating a truly sustainable civilisation would be a good thing.

Me cynical?

I agree whole heartedly. And that will take money and a strong economy.

Troyk wrote:Does that mean we wont need How to Vote Cards? With all the green policies that all the parties have, we still have a forest of leaflets gone to waste at the end of the day. I refuse to take them and make a big point about it to party drones who hand them out, though to the embarrassment of my wife.

You've answered your own quesiton ... if we knew how to vote we wouldn't need how to vote cards would we ...

Let's learn about the fact we have a bicamarel system and how can it be used effectively for the voter. I don't see any party teaching us the imprtance of a bicameral system and how the individual voter can use this to help keep some form of balance within the system of Parliament. That's just for starters, then we could learn about the imprtance of the way the votes are tallied ... the AEC won't tell you that you can't vote for just one party and no others (as per my previous response to Fonty's question on voting only one party) BUT they still count your vote if you do that. The only porblem then is you lose the privilege of preference voting. Surely the AEC SHOULD be telling us we can do that if they count the vote? A bit poor really consider all this is supposed to be for us, the population. Oops ... starting to rant ...

You can be pretty sure that the Greens use recycled paper for their handouts. I doubt they'd get away with it otherwise.

They sure do ... and if you need a "How to Vote" leaflet just give it back to the people handing them out after you've finsihed. In the last few elections I've ntoiced that's what they have been encouraging (all parties). Isn't that also recycling?

Had a nasty thought, the size of the Senate "How to Vote" sheet ... you could make a marquee tent out of them!

They recycle their own toilet paper

I assumed it wasn't used? Oh hang ... if they sud it first THEN that wold be recycling ...

So how did you find out about the 1 Minor party vote rule Scol? My worry would be that a 1 vote for a Minor party would still be changed to their 'official' preferences automatically. If the party I'm voting for gives preferences to a Major Party that's their business but I'm still not interested in doing it. I've emailed the AEC from their website to really get it clear. Their response will be interesting if it's one of the things they don't like advertising.

Trouble is if I change my ways and actually consider voting then I'll have to examine policies! OMG!!!!

Fonty wrote:So how did you find out about the 1 Minor party vote rule Scol? My worry would be that a 1 vote for a Minor party would still be changed to their 'official' preferences automatically.

Nup ... they'd get in deep pooh if they did that ... working for the AEC helps. Also, it's not a 'rule' of sorts ... it's jsut something they do to allow the maximum number of votes to be counted ... it also works with major parties too ... ie. if you JUST vote Labor and they don't get in on primary's then you'd prolly loose your vote UNLESS other people's preferences get them over the line. AEC have a lot of 'little' rules that they don't tell you about. Eg. going back to preferences ... you can just put in two parties if you like ... and again you loose the privilege IF the first or second party get's knocked out on primary votes ... make sense? But they WON'T tell you you can do it ... they practice it from an ethical point of view ... ie. it's your vote and that's what you want to do with it so fine. But if the party you vote for doesn't make first preference then you lose your vote.

You are now educating yourself re. voting (I'm not trying to be funny ... I think it's a good thing!). Dont forget you can change your preferences from what the parties suggest. You can vote green and preference labor, you can vote green and preference liberal. It's easy to do ... the Greens used to ask you which you want to preference and give you the 'How to Vote' card that preferenced the way YOU wanted to vote.

Another trick, as we have a bicameral system of parliament ... you can vote say Lib's in lower house (which is where govt is formed) and labor in upper house (senate). That way you are syaing you want Libs to form govt. but dont want them in the Senate as you'd rather their Bills are checked prior to turning them into law. Does this make sense? I NEVER vote one party in BOTH upper and lower seats. It makes for what I call a true demcoracy (which can be argued!) in that the senate will keep the lwoer house in check ... sorta! This works for all parties, the Greens just want yor senate vote ... that way they can rule the senate with enough sitting members (it happened in WA and the major parties had to be nice to the Greens .... for a change) as they hold the key to 'majority vote' (assuming lib and labor are evenly spread amongst the Senate).

Hope I haven't confused you here!

If the party I'm voting for gives preferences to a Major Party that's their business but I'm still not interested in doing it. I've emailed the AEC from their website to really get it clear. Their response will be interesting if it's one of the things they don't like advertising.

So don't do it ... you only lose your vote if the aprty you voted for doesn;t get in ... but it's stilled counted as a primary vote for that party (and ONLY that party).

AEC will respond as per policy ... I'm guessing they will say you'll lose your vote if you jsut tick one square ... then again ... times are changing so if you don't mind, let me know what their response is.

Trouble is if I change my ways and actually consider voting then I'll have to examine policies! OMG!!!!

hehe thanks Scol. Yep I understood it all. As I said I did Year 12 Politics and learnt quite a lot there about all this stuff. That's why I was surprised to here I could just vote the way you say. I'm glad you've cleared up that I didn't actually forget something from that year.

I'll let you know how they reply, or if they do. I did ask another legit question about their website as well so maybe that will force them to take note of my email. I used their search function to find out which electorate I was in and it gave me a choice of two! lol So I told them I hadn't come there for a pop quiz I actually wanted the answer myself and could they tell me which electorate is the right one.

I honestly believe that if people REALLY knew how to vote we'd get more transperancy in our political system.

Someone else from another camping forum asked me about voting ( a bit simpler that your questions but still proved to me how the two major parties like to keep certain things quiet) so I've typed up some suggestions on how to make your own vote preference who YOU want to preference and not who a party wants to preference.

If people are genuinely interested I might post it up on a few other forums becuase ppl really havent been taught to vote properly.